Reviews

Secret Weapons Over Normandy

Normandy's gameplay enjoys a considerable advantage over flight-action games like Lethal Skies II for a simple reason: Every dogfight requires you to exercise skillful maneuvering and accurate aiming, as opposed to kicking in the afterburners or launching a couple of fire-and-forget heat-seekers. Holland's design shines because it heightens the tension and intimacy that was inherent to air conflict of the era.

While Normandy's title implies a European setting, the single-player campaign also ranges into the Pacific Theater, and the roster of more than two dozen aircraft includes U.S., British, Japanese, and German models. The sprawling missions -- which are long enough to warrant checkpoints -- serve up nearly equal amounts of ground and air targets, constantly throw surprises at you, and include secondary/bonus objectives that add replay and gameplay value. (The more objectives you complete, the more upgrades you earn to boost the performance of your ever-larger selection of aircraft.) There's even a healthy dose of lively, very well-acted radio chatter during each mission to advance the "plot" and clarify the primary objectives.

Along with the campaign is an instant-action option in which you can choose any of the planes and terrains you've unlocked in the campaign mode, and set up anything from one-on-one combat with an ace pilot to a mad scramble against a half-dozen rookies. You also select a certain score or time limit to determine a winner. This mode is reminiscent of a similar feature in an old Chuck Yeager action-flight sim for the PC, one I pissed away many happy hours with, so it's great to see it here.

The two-player mode has two variations: instant action and a group of seven challenge missions, divided into head-to-head, cooperative, and co-op competitive categories. The horizontal split-screen action inevitably chugs at times, but it's still a blast, especially when you take on your hapless friend with a horde of wingmen.

Normandy sacrifices 60-fps gameplay speed for impressive graphic detail in its aircraft and terrain, which leaves me torn; speed should always be favored over detail, since the former makes for better gameplay, but Normandy's greatness is partly due to its rich atmosphere, which a lessened level of detail would damage. It's a decision I'm glad I didn't have to make. Fortunately, the slight sluggishness rarely gets in the way of the fun, especially since you're constantly downshifting into slow-mo anyway.

Why have a garage full of cars when you can have a hangar full of planes?

Another visual highlight is the replay option, which implements a fantastic (and optional) "shaky-cam" effect -- but it only records the last fifteen seconds of action, and you can't save the data to a memory card, two limitations that defeat much of the purpose of the feature.

With its intuitive, intense gameplay and rich atmosphere, Secret Weapons Over Normandy is the best flight-action game for the PlayStation 2. Kudos to LucasArts for shamelessly stealing a great idea, and for hiring the perfect developer to implement it!